Air and Space Museum in Washington

We are doing our annual trip to Australia and as a present to myself for my 70th birthday later in the year, we are taking the Amtrak train to Seattle. Our first leg is from Union Station in Washington DC to Union Station in Chicago. 

As usual, we took the commuter train from Perryville down to Washington. Marianne organized a house sitter to look after Catty-Watty and this is Tom who lives in Chicago. He kindly drove us down to the station.

The MARC train to Washington lurks in the background and costs $12 for the two of us at seniors rates. The journey takes about two hours.

We decided to walk to a MATA (metro) building near Judiciary Square in Washington to buy Seniors tickets and came acrross this distinguished looking building.

We passed by a curious statue across the road from the brick building which turned out to be the National Building Museum.

It is stunning inside.

The base of one of the columns.

Some of the frieze around the building. We did not have time to tour the museum but it has gone onto my list as a future place to visit.

Another interesting building.

We took the Metro down to L'Enfant Plaza to walk to nearby Air & Space Museum.

There are lots of government buildings in the vicinity and here are some of the food wagons who serve them lunch.

The Air & Space Museum. Years ago, we found that if you want to get a park right outside, the day to visit is New Year's Day.

It is a fabulous museum because it has so many of the most famous planes and rockets in aviation history. I am not going to describe every exhibit now because it will take too long but I will return to update the blog later.

Gemini IV module. The pattern on the heat shield is fascinating and remember that there were two astronauts in that tiny capsule and one of them performed the first space walk.

The Mercury Friendship 7 module. John Glenn was the first US astronaut to circle the earth in this small module.

Lunar Lander.

It has been quite a few years since I visited. The exhibits have been moved around but they obviously are still the same.

A German V2 rocket from WWII.

Marianne and I decided to separate and meet later in the day at a specific location.

I don't think this stealth plane was there last time.

The aircraft carrier was unchanged. The plane still comes in to land.

And the same planes take off.

There are approximately 55 Spitfires that are still capable of flying.

An early mail plane.

Part of the WW1 display. If you like planes from this era, go to the RAF Museum just outside London. They have an impressive display.

I went to the IMAX theater that was showing a 3D film on engineering. As you went in, you picked up a set of the special glasses from these racks.

Inside the theater. The film was visually wonderful and I was impressed by the 3D effects but the film appeared to be aimed at children to get them interested in engineering.

It was time to return to the station. It is one of the world's greatest museums and really worth a visit.

We walked back to the Metro station and passed by this street band.

We decided not to eat lunch here but I was tempted. After my trip to India I discovered that I did not want to eat Indian food for a while but now I am ready for it again.